Yasmin Karachiwala is a celebrity fitness trainer and owner of BodyImage Training Studio; she was among the first to establish a pilates studio in Mumbai.
Yasmin is behind the gorgeous body of several leading Bollywood actresses (Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Aalia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Ileana D’cruz, Sophie Choudry, Malaika Arora Khan, and more).
Yasmin has also co-authored the book ‘Sculpt and Shape: The Pilates Way’ (along with co-author Zaeena Dhalla).
Yasmin weight trains twice a week, do pilates five days a week, cardio six days a week and takes rest on Sundays. She eats six small meals a day. Once a week she allows herself to cheat (dessert or biryani).
Yasmin believes that correct information is the first step towards starting anything and that every body type requires a different workout regime. Hence it is important to understand what you and your body need before taking on a physical activity form.
Karachiwala runs the ‘Body Image’ fitness studio in Mumbai. She recently launched the book Sculpt and Shape: The Pilates Way, which she co-authored with Zeena Dhalla, a leading fitness professional.
Here’s an interview with the leading fitness guru.
What can readers expect from the book?
Like all good books on fitness, our book discusses exercises and how they can be done well. But where it goes a step further is in touching upon how sleep, fear and emotions can affect exercise routines and lifestyle. Most importantly, it talks about the significance of breathing patterns during exercise, which most people discount. When I do five minutes of breathing exercises with my new clients, they feel dizzy because they are not used to oxygenating their body so much.
You are a strong proponent of Pilates. How is it more beneficial than other exercise?
Pilates helps you achieve results in a much gentler way than other exercises because it does not injure your muscles. It works your core with every exercise, which means that even if you are working on your biceps, you still have to engage your core for stability.
You are India’s fitness trainer to the stars. Who was your first celebrity client?
Kareena Kapoor was the first celebrity to come to me 12 years ago. At that time, I wasn’t doing Pilates, so we did a lot of cardiovascular and other gym exercises.
What are the virtues that help your celebrity clients achieve their goals?
Patience and discipline are the virtues that help them get by. Today, their focus has shifted from slimming down to being fit because fitness helps them work longer.
Challenges of training a man and a woman?
There are no challenges really for me as a trainer because knowing a person’s body makes me decide what kind of a workout they need to do and schedule it accordingly.
The challenges if you are asking for men and women are very individualistic because if I have big hips and that’s my problem area and if you have problem weight on your upper back that is your challenge and your workout needs to be designed around that.
How do you make consideration for age and gender in your workouts?
Age factors into it when you are a beginner at any level. So if you are a beginner at 20, your workout may be simpler than an intermediate person at 40. So basically it depends on your fitness level.
So I would say that fitness level factors into a workout plan and not age. Of course age too because if I have a 65 year old, I am not going to have them jumping around the gym and doing crazy things but at the same time there are some very very fit 65 year olds who’s goals might be to do plyometrics or whatever so it’s a very goal oriented workout.
Tell us about the YouTube channel you are launching.
A lot of people reach out to me through social media with their problems and for customised workouts. I have been posting exercise plans on Facebook for a while, so the next step is to make a workout schedule that anyone can do at home without equipments. The YouTube channel will have various doable sessions for different body parts and will help people do exercises properly.
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